Giannis Antetokounmpo yelling about his lost game ball after scoring a career-high 64 points. Photo Credit: Bally Sports Wisconsin
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Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a career-high 64 points in their win over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night. However, the celebration was delayed after a petty Pacers player decided to take the game ball after the matchup concluded.

Under normal circumstances, you would expect any player who scored a career-high in points to be extremely happy and joyous after the game.

Instead, Giannis was incensed, yelling at a number of Pacers players and staff members on the court after the game. He then ran into the locker room to seemingly retrieve the game ball.

He came back to the court empty-handed, which seemingly made him even more upset. Antetokounmpo continued to yell at the likes of Tyrese Haliburton on the court before finally calming down and returning back to his own locker room.

Fans took notice of the wild situation and offered their opinion on it on social media.

Luckily, the Bucks security team was able to ultimately retrieve the game ball for Antetokounmpo, according to TNT’s Chris Haynes.

Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle spoke after the game about why the ball was even taken in the first place, claiming that they were doing so to celebrate rookie big man Oscar Tshiebwe’s first points in the NBA.

“After the game was unfortunate,” said Carlisle. “There was a misunderstanding about the game ball. It was Oscar Tshiebwe’s first NBA point. So we always get the game ball. We weren’t thinking of Giannis’s franchise record. So we grabbed the ball and a couple of minutes later several of their players ended up in our hallway.

“There was a big melee. I don’t think there were any punches thrown, but our general manager got elbowed in the ribs by one of their players. Unfortunate situation. We don’t need the official game ball. There are two game balls there. It didn’t need to escalate to that.”

Meanwhile, Antetokounmpo claimed in his postgame press conference that he has his doubts that the ball he received is even the official game ball.

“I have no idea, I’m not gonna lie,” said Antetokounmpo when asked whether he had the game ball. “I don’t know. I have a ball, but it doesn’t feel like the game ball to me. It feels like a brand new ball. I can tell, I played 35 minutes today, so I know how it felt. The ball that I have, I’ll give it to my mom for sure.  It’s just unfortunate, I’ve never seen this before.”

On paper, it does feel a little bit petty for the Pacers to try and take the game ball for a rookie’s first points over one of the most historic performances in recent memory for Antetokounmpo.

Hopefully Antetokounmpo did indeed get the official game ball. But it is clear that he has his doubts about it…

[Rob Perez on Twitter]

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley